Just A Sec: The Lifestyle Blog for Busy New York Secretaries recently conducted an informal survey of 300 secretaries, administrative assistants and executive assistants (for the purpose of this article, referred to collectively as "secretaries") working in New York City to find out what might entice them to leave their current job, if another company came a-courting, but did not offer an increase in salary.
Out of 300 secretaries surveyed, a whopping 282 would definitely consider leaving their current job for another -- even if their salary would remain the same. Clearly, this indicates very little loyalty on the part of secretaries to their employers, or even to their immediate bosses.
We asked the 282 who'd consider making a change what would entice them more: a company offering fully-paid medical insurance, or an employer offering four weeks of paid vacation and an additional 16 paid sick/personal days.
91 secretaries were more seduced by the paid medical coverage, leaving a majority of 191 who'd rather receive the benefit of more paid time off.
"I'd rather get a slightly bigger paycheck and know my medical insurance was always there, and not have to worry about it," one secretary commented.
Still others argued in favor of vacation and sick time.
"I'm used to seeing that money come out of my check for insurance premiums," an administrative assistant named Pam told us. "To me, it's more important to know I can stay home when I'm sick and not feel guilty about it, or not go in and work when I feel bad just because I'm afraid of using up all my days before the end of the year."
Jessica said: "Too many people work when they're sick, or come back before they're really ready. And it's not good for the rest of the office, because half the time they're just spreading germs around."
"I think having more paid vacation days is extra health insurance," said Linda. "It's important to take care of yourself. Everyone needs to balance work with time away from work. In the long run, I think people would do a better job when they're at work if they had more time to clear their heads and relax."
Elena, an aspiring artist, made another excellent point about balance and how it's a good thing for employers: "These corporate entities need to stop seeing (employees') outside interests as some kind of threat, or treat(ing) a person's extracurricular activities like they're going to bleed something important away from your efforts at work," she said. "If you have interests outside of work, I think it shows that you're a smart person...Wouldn't (employers) rather have smart, ambitious people working for them? So if you support your employees and their outside interests, and give them more time off to pursue those interests, I think you're going to get better employees all around. It's the ones who are unhappy and never get to do what they love who slack off at work or have a chip on their shoulder. Plus (an employer) can't really expect their entire secretarial staff to be as interested in the company's business as management and the executives. Those people went to school to do (the type of business the company engages in). And it's not like there are huge opportunities for advancement for secretaries. If (the company's business) was your one big interest in life, you probably wouldn't choose becoming a secretary as part of your career path. So (companies) have to accept that their support staff have outside interests. That's a good thing. They should support it!"
Of the 300 secretaries surveyed, only 46 receive four weeks or more of paid vacation (ouch!) Only 118 said they received more than 7 paid sick/personal days.
Most telling of all is the fact that only 12 out of 300 secretaries felt they received enough vacation, sick and personal days to adequately address their needs.
